Budgies Wiki
Intro This wiki is about how to raise budgies. They're a popular pet and I want to discuss the different breeds of budgies and the best ways for you to look after your budgie if you have one. This is intended for someone new to raising budgies or just looking to improve their knowledge of budgies. I have had pet budgies in my house for as long as I can remember and have raised lots of budgies over the years, with a recent addition to the family called Tanjiro, a cute little budgie with gorgeous vivid blue feathers. We welcomed baby Sonny in October last year. He's a darling little fellow who likes being cuddled and fussed over. What is a budgie? The budgerigar is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parakeet native to the drier parts of Australia. Wild budgies are naturally green and yellow with black scalloped markings on their wings. Breeders have created budgies in a rainbow of gorgeous colours including vivid blues, albino, yellow (lutino), grey and some with crests. Budgies are very popular pets around the world because they are small and don't cost a lot to keep, they are very playful and they can mimic human speech. How to choose a budgie It's ideal to purchase a budgie from a breeder, rather than a pet store. A breeder is serious about what they do and will give you good advice on how to care for the newst addition to your family. When choosing a budgie, look for a sprightly, active bird who chirps a lot and appears inquisitive. A bird who sleeps in the corner of the aviary/cage with their feathers puffed up may be sick. Don't buy a sick bird, even if you feel sorry for them. You'll be at the vet a lot and the bird will probably have to need to be euthanised at some point, as it's unfair to keep them alive when they are seriously ill. Age If you want to tame a budgie and get them to sit on your shoulder, you should get them as young as possible. If you get a budgie of about 6 weeks of age, they will be used to being handled by the time they are mature. If you're just after a feathered companion to chat to, then the bird's age doesn't really matter. Be warned though, older birds, especially females can be quite grumpy, so try not to handle them. Your budgie should live between 6 and 8 years, but my last budgie Buster lived until nine (he had to be put down due to a tumor in his tummy). Some may well live inot double digits if you really love them and take care of them well. How to Tell a Budgie's Sex Telling the difference between males and females is rather difficult when they are still babies, but as they get older, look at the colour o f the fleshy bit above the bird's beak. If your bird is male, it should turn a lovely blue colour. If you bird is female, it should go a white colour (non-breeding) or a brown colour (breeding). If you have a Lutino or albino, however, their beak may remain a purplish-pink colour their whole lives. Another method is to put a male bird in the cage and see if they start trying to mate (maybe not). Nutrition Budgies should have a varied diet. Your bird should be fine on a diet of seed, millet and water, but for optimum nutrition, you should in troduce some kinds of fruit and vegetables and give them a cuttlebone to eat and sharpen their beaks on (this provides them with calcium). Seeds are high in fat, so they shouldn't take up the whole of a bird's diet. Baby birds sometimes like to bed fed egg biscuit, but only give it as a treat. Vegetables: *celery *corn *spinach *broccoli *beans *Eggplants *Curly kale *Chicory *Red beet *Snow Peas *Cooked sweet potatoes *Pumpkin *Spring onion *Carrots Fruit: *Apples *grapes *Bananas *Plums *raspberries *blueberries *Cherries *Pineapple *Papaya *melons DO NOT EVER FEED YOUR BUDGIE THESE IF YOU LOVE THEM: OK so this is mostly common sense: *Citrus fruits like lemons, limes or oranges *Avocado (it's toxic) *fresh dates (too much tanning agent) *Kumquats (too acidic) *Passionfruit (too much citric acid) *Grapefruit or Pomelo (too much citric acid) *Unripe fruit of any kind *Contaminated seed or water *Rotting fruit or vegetables (feed it to your garden instead) *Things that are considered junk food for humans like chips, fries, coffee, alcohol etc Make sure you take away any food they have pooped on, as it will make them sick if they eat it. Always give your budgie fresh seed and water every day. Cage If you love your feathered friend, you won't put them in a round cage. It might look cool in a king of anachronistic way, but that is like keeping your little friend in a cramped prison where they can't fly around. Get a cage big enough so your bird can fly around in it and if you can, replace the perches that come with the cage with tree branches, as they are better for you bird's feet. It's also a good idea to get a cage where you can remove the bottom by pulling it out towards you. You'll thank me for this advice when you have to clean the cage. Get one that has a door you can open towards you, not one you lift up. Don't keep the cage anywhere near the kitchen because the fumes and smells can kill! Keep the cage away from draughts and in a spot where the temperature is constant. NEVER '''place the cage near an open window, a fireplace, a heater or in the direct path of an air-conditioner. This is because the tempertature fluctuations may give your birdy the chills. To allow your birdy to roost at a natural hour, cover the cage at dusk with a towel or thin blanket. Always line the bird's cage with grit trays, as they can easily be removed when you clean the cage and won't go soggy and fall apart like newspaper if it gets wet. Make sure you clean the cage at least once a week, although twice to three times a week is better. General Health Make sure you get your budgie checked at the vet regularly. Once every 6 months is great. '''NEVER wait until your birdy is poorly before taking them to the vet. You go for a regular check-up with your doctor right? You go to the dentist once every few months? Your bird should be going to the vet regularly to be checked over. better to spend $80 and find out your budgie is healthy than to wait until you have to get them put down. If you don't have any cats or dogs or bigger animals, it's nice to let your budgie out of the cage to fly around or wander around. If you are worried about your feathered friend flying in to something, you could get their wings clipped (get a vet to show you how to do it. There's a lot of squawking and biting involved). If your bird is on a diet of mostly seeds and doesn't get a lot of exercise, then they will get really overweight (no, it's not as cute as you think). An overweight budgie is at risk of developing benign fatty tumours that can grow at an uncontrollable rate and make your feathered friend have trouble with breathing (my first female bird Beyonce had to be put down because she was overweight). If you have a large aviary of birds or more than one bird in a cage, it's best to worm them every few months because illness can spread fast in such close quarters and get a vet to come over and check them every 6 weeks. Diseases Like all creatures, budgies can get sick too. Most illnesses can easily be treated, like scaly-face mites, but some may need a bit more treatment. Generally, the easiest way to tell if your bird is sick is if they are sitting at the bottom of the cage, feathers puffed up and sleeping a lot, ignoring their food and being unusually tame. #'scaly-face mites:' This is common in birds who live in aviaries or where there are multiple birds in close quarters. Sometimes when you bring your bird home, they may already have it. As it takes a few months for the mites to become noticeable, you might not think the bird is sick until the stuff starts appearing on the beak. When a budgie has the mites, the beak will look crusty and gross. The crustiness can spread to the cere and around the eyes if left untreated, and can lead to deformities of the beak. This is usually diagnosed by taking your budgie to the vet, who will scrape some stuff off the beak and look at it under the microscope. If it is scaly-face mites, then you'll be prescribed ivermectin for your budgie. If you have other birds in the cage, treat them whether they look sick or not because it is contagious. Replace wooden perches with branches from native trees and do this weekly. If you can't see the vet straight away, try applying Vaseline or olive oil on the beak with a cotton bud. This will suffocate the mites. You might need to do this a couple of times every day. #'egg-binding: '''This is only a female bird disease, obviously. This is caused by birds being mated too early in the year, around January/February in the northern hemisphere or April/May in the southern hemisphere. Prevention involves mixing cod liver oil into a breakfast-cup of seed. Treatment consists of heat, like putting the cage near the heater (obviously not too close). in an emergency, wrap the female in a warm towel and hold her near somethign warm. Generally, in these conditions, it will help her lay the egg. If you see your female bird sitting on the floor for long periods and she seems to be straining excessively, it could be problems laying the egg. If left untreated, the bird may die of exhaustion, stress or other things. #'Red mites:' These mites hide in the croener of your budgie's cage during the day and come out at night to bother your bird. They irritate the bird so much they don't get much sleep and will be cranky and tired during the day, sleeping a lot and being grumpy to you. During the day the mites look grey and aren't really visible, but after they feed, they look red. Scrub the cage and tooys and accessories in warm water during the day and anything around it. Don't let the bird near the cage or areas near the cage. '''Don't' disinfect the bird! #'Colds, pneumonia, bronchitis: '''Symptoms can include diarrhoea, sneezing, wheezing, breathing trouble, sitting puffed up in the corner of the cage, discharge from nostrils, tail bobbing up and down, loss of appetite, shortness of breath and sleeping a lot. Causes can include being exposed to draughts/sharp drops in temperature. A vet may give antibiotics and tell you to keep the bird warm. #'Apoplexy: Caused by a lack of Vitamin E. Symptoms involve the bird being very tired and lying down on the bottom of the cage. Take your bird to the vet and the vet will give them vitamin E somehow, maybe telling you to add it to the water. #'''Coccidiosis: This is caused by internal parasites. If you keep your birds outdoors and they interact with wild birds, they're at risk. Symptoms include loss of appetite, bloody droppings and weakness. Diagnosed by examining for eggs in the droppings. #'Feather lice: '''Caused by mites and makes wings, back and breast feathers look like they have chewed edges. #'French moult: Causes affected birds to lose their tail feathers and flight feathers to an extent after they leave the nest. #'Gout: '''Symptoms include lameness and the budgie not wanting to fly around. A diet rich in greens and vitamin B can help the bird. #'Psittacosis: 'Rare in birds that are reared in captivity. Caused by a bacterium and is contagious. Humans can get this disease and it can be noticed in birds who have brown diarrhoea. The surviving birds become carriers. The birds' eyes become inflamed and and they have difficulty breathing. This can be treated with antibiotics like tetracycline or doxycycline in their water. In humans, the infection mimics tyhpoid fever in the first week- you get diarrhoea and a really high fever. Then comes conjunctivitis, leukopenia (decrease in white blood cells), nose bleeds and an enlarged spleen. Severe cases can lead to coma. #'Pullorum: 'A cureable disease in young birds of any kind that causes white diarrhoea, weakness and depression. It's caused by ''Salmonella pullorum. #'''Lack of calcium: 'when birds need more calcium in their diet, they'll start eating their own droppings and have a soft beak. #'Urinary disease: 'Symptoms include liquid droppings, drinking more water than normal and lots of urine in droppings (the urine is the white bit I think). Colour and markings If you see a budgie in the wild, they would be green and yellow with scalloped black markings on the nape, back and wings. However, breeders have created a multitude of gorgeous colours such as blues, greys, whites, yellows, bright greens and some may have crests. Little baby birds will have bars almost down to their cere, while adults don't have that many. All captive budgies are divided into two basic colour series: white based (blue, grey and white budgies) and yellow based (green, grey-green and yellow budgies). At the moment, there are about 32 primary mutations in the budgie (including violet), leading to hundreds of possible secondary colour mutations. I'm no expert so I don't know much else. Each of the 32 primary mutations belong to one of four groups: #'Albinism: This is where eumelanin 'is either partly or completely reduced in all body tissues and structures, similar to the way an albino person has little or no pigment in their skin #'Dilution: This is where eumelanin is party reduced in feathering #'Leucism: '''This is where '''eumelanin '''is completely reduced from total or localized feathering #'Melanism: '''This is where '''eumelanin '''is increased in feathering. OK so some of you may have heard of the elusive "red" or "orange" budgies. They are fake, any pictures of them are probably just badly shooped photos of different birds. Look below for more info on colour mutations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budgerigar_colour_genetics Helpful links: *http://www.petaquarium.com.au/default.asp?id=34 *http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?showforum=3 *http://www.budgiecare.org/ *http://www.pittwateranimalhospital.com.au/budgies.html *http://www.budgies.org/ *http://www.petbudgies.com/breeding.html *http://www.thebudgiecage.com/ *http://www.birdclinic.net/bird2.htm Anything else? If you can help me edit this wiki, provide info on anything or just have any suggestions, don't hesitate to leave a message on the founder's talk page or send me an email at calliparker63@gmail.com Category:Browse